


Defrost

by Serena_Rose



Category: The Good Place (TV)
Genre: Eleanor is into it, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, First Kiss, Fluff, Humor, Might raise the rating, S2 Michael is a little bench, Snow, maybe smut later, season two
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-05
Updated: 2020-11-05
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:48:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,939
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27403792
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Serena_Rose/pseuds/Serena_Rose
Summary: Vicky decides to summon a snow-storm to torture the humans at the worst possible time for Eleanor. Michael begrudgingly goes to find her before she freezes.
Relationships: Michael (The Good Place) & Eleanor Shellstrop, Michael (The Good Place)/Eleanor Shellstrop
Comments: 7
Kudos: 24





	Defrost

**Author's Note:**

> This was a cute fluffy one-shot I wrote on Tumblr but I'm reposting it here and leaving it open as I feel like I might add more to see where these two go. I've always wanted to write a series of S2 Hellstrop moments and this feels like a good one to start with if I do. No promises!

Michael was beaming. This was absolutely hilarious.

It was only his third ethics lesson and definitely his favorite so far, none of which had anything to do with what he was supposed to be learning. Presumably. 

When he’d begrudgingly arrived, all of the humans had been gathered waiting for class to start, Chidi stood at the chalkboard tapping his foot, while Jason and Tahani sat awkwardly at either ends of the couch, as if it wasn’t obvious enough that they were having a ‘secret fling’ the rest of the dummies were too blind to notice. 

There’d been an annoying twinge in his chest when there didn’t seem to be any sign of Eleanor, the one human who wasn’t afraid to sit near him and make these damn lessons somewhat bearable. 

“She’s decided to skip today. Apparently the weather was far too good to stay inside when there’s good ‘Arizona style skin baking’ to do.” Chidi had explained with a groan when Michael had asked about his missing classmate. 

The brief irritation and pettiness that Eleanor hadn’t asked him to ditch classes with her was quickly replaced by a burst of giggles, his hand moving to his mouth.

“What is so amusing?” Tahani asks, looking up.

“Oh, it’s great, trust me! I was about to warn you all; Vicky’s about to get Janet to mess up the weather so that we have a week of insanely cold snowstorms! Apparently something to do with Eleanor giving you ‘the cold shoulder’, yada yada,” Michael waves off, addressing the egocentric princess; “And…Ha! Eleanor is out there _sunbathing_?! Oh, that’s priceless!”

Why did he never think of that in all those reboots? Maybe because sending murder hornets after Chidi whenever the two of them tried to have a romantic picnic or soak them in torrential rain seemed too similar. But this was even better! If only he could take credit for it.

A flash of white outside the windows gets all the humans to their feet as they turn to see Michael’s words come to fruition. Heavy, sharp winds carrying the thickest of snowflakes begin whirling around and burying the ground outside in a quickly rising layer of powder.

“Oh, so THAT’S snow! Awesome!” Of course the Florida DJ hadn’t ventured far enough beyond his swamp city to see such weather before; “I wanna go eat it!”

“Trust me! You really don’t wanna go out in that, it’s not designed to be fun. I’m supposed to make some announcement to be broadcast in your homes later about a glitch and you all needing to stay inside.” Michael warns them of that.

Chidi turns on him; “And you said Eleanor’s out in that?!”

“Yeah! Imagine her trying to make her way back in that! She’s probably frozen solid already. That’ll teach her to skip class, right, Teach?” He raises his hand in the air.

Chidi leaves him hanging. As does Tahani. Not even Jason will indulge him.

Ugh. So much for a team. He drops his hand down as their stares on him turn to full on glaring.

“Tough room.” Michael puts his hands in his pockets.

“You’re supposed to _not_ torture us anymore, you need to go make sure she’s okay.” Chidi tells him.

Oh, for fork’s sake. Why should he do that when Eleanor was gonna leave him to endure this dumb lecture while she got to relax and top her tan up? This was the best he was going to get to payback…as well as for the eight hundred previous defeats that he seemed to care less and less about each day.

“She’ll be fine! It’s only a bit of snow. And anyway, this isn’t my torture, it’s Vicky’s - speaking of which, Janet will be offline for a little bit as she’s supposed to be helping fix this, but it’s really just to make your quarantine more boring.”

See? He’s nice enough to fill them in on that and what thanks does he get?

“Okay then, I’ll go-.” Chidi starts towards the door.

Michael huffs and blocks the professor’s path; “No, you’re supposed to stay in…Plus your limbs might fall off from frostbite in five minutes.”

“You just said-.”

“I know what I said, she’ll still be fine…” Michael turns and stomps his way out the door, muttering under his breath; “…So long as I find her quick.” He clears his throat and exits into the snowy chaos.

It’s lucky his extra senses are able to help him find the path towards the beach, as the fog is getting denser along with the downpour. He snaps a pair of snow boots on to help him trudge through where his loafers don’t help quite as much, along with a long, blue coat flapping behind him. He doesn’t feel the cold as bad as the humans would, but it’s still a pain in the ash. It’s bad enough relinquishing control of his experiment, now his beautiful torture city is going to be wrecked by this wintry storm. 

He hopes he wins some major extra credit scores in these ethics lessons for journeying out into this to help bring one filthy cockroach back…even if she was the most enjoyable cockroach to be around. 

A claw reaches out to grip his ankle.

“AH, SHIRT!” He almost trips, at first expecting one of the ice demons to have taken off their skin and planning to surprise him; “Sven, is that you?!”

He glances down, seeing the hand still exposed through the snow on the ground, his sight adjusting to make out the fallen form, half-buried alive…well, close enough.

Oh. Crab.

He kneels down and digs the inches of snow away, exposing Eleanor’s shivering, half-naked form on the ground. Her hair is damp and her lips nearly bright blue, arms hugged tight around herself, her swimsuit possibly making her more cold than if she was wearing nothing at all.

“Eleanor? Eleanor, can you hear me?” He shakes her by the shoulder.

Flakes are caught in her eyelashes as she tries to open her lids, teeth chattering like those little wind-up novelty set he has in his cabinet.

“H-h-h-hey b-b-bud.” She says, smaller and weaker than he’s ever heard her; “C-c-care to t-t-turn up the…th-thermostat…a b-b-bit?” 

About another twenty degrees Celsius? 

Michael sighs, brushing the snow away from her hair, though more quickly falls on her. He knows he should take this moment to mock her, to take advantage of this rare opportunity to see her in true misery…But he’s pretty sure she’s going to pass out at any moment. And, damn it, has she always been this _small?_

He shrugs his coat off and swaddles it around her frame, trying to make sure every corner is tucked in against the icy wind, before he lifts her up.

Her head turns to find its way to the crook of his neck.

“Wow….H-h-how are you so warm? You made of f-f-fire?” She whispers, jaw still moving rapidly beyond her control.

“Yes.” Is as much as he reveals, for now. 

He scoops her close in his arms, turning to go back to the clown house before spotting Vicky beyond some trees, possibly on her way to look for him.

Cursing inward, he turns and heads back towards the rocks near the beach.

“R-r-really not in the mood for a beach read r-right now, man.” Eleanor barely has the strength to stand in her giant coat burrito as Michael releases her near some boulders.

Michael snaps his fingers, summoning an igloo behind the giant rocks, out of easy line of sight for any potential scouting demons, though he knows not many venture this far out - usually making it the perfect spot for his and Eleanor’s after-school study groups (aka the Make Fun of Chidi and Forget To Study groups).

“Oh, n-nice! An ice house for me to f-f-freeze in some more!” Eleanor’s quickly numbing face makes it difficult for the sarcasm to translate on her face.

Michael rolls his eyes and nudges her to get inside.

Obviously, it’s no mere igloo. It’s more like one of those ‘glamping’ - as Tahani would say and then lose points for using - pods or tents, essentially a portable mini-apartment with a sofa, a TV, a stove and a lit fireplace that doesn’t melt the walls. Because magic. 

“F-f-fork…I t-take it back,” Eleanor exclaims, swaying as she clutches the coat around her and glances at the surroundings which are, of course, bigger than the outside would allude to; “This is pretty swe…Sweet set…”

Michael sees her begin to fall to the floor despite being no where near the large sofa. He catches her and hurries her over to the fireplace, snapping his fingers to ignite some more flames.

“Better?” He asks, rubbing her arms, watching her aura and studying her vitals.

Probably not the best thing for a human to get hypothermia, even when already dead. Especially so. The ones being tortured in the snowy Bad Place neighbourhoods looked rather happy, though that was mainly because their mouths were frozen in permanent smiles, the ice forever smothering their screams.

Eleanor nods a little, before shuffling out of the coat.

“T-that things too wet…So is this…” She gestures to her skimpy blue bathing suit, struggling to move her numb fingers; “Dude…gimmie a hand?”

A hand? Wait.

She wants him to…? Oh. Right. 

His throat suddenly goes dry, which is ridiculous as he shouldn’t ever need to hydrate. Michael nods, moving his fingers to fumble the knot on her back, allowing the bra to slide off of her after a couple of minutes.

He hears her chuckle; “Wow, even demon boys still struggles to get a human bra off, huh?”

Michael feels the blush on his cheek, not having expected that to be a skill he would need to learn.

He watches her keep her back to him, pushing her bottoms down to her ankles before kicking them aside on the warm, white ‘carpet’ he made up for the igloo, before she shuffles as close as she can to the fireplace. Sitting bare naked and not seeming to give a fork that he can see every inch of her.

Thank Upper Management the whole shivering and blue-tinted skin doesn’t make her the least bit attractive…Not that she ever was…Gross, dumb human.

“Lemmie guess…Vicky’s latest idea? Why didn’t you tell me, man? I thought we were a team.” She berates over her shoulder to him.

“Hey, I was going to tell you and the others at class. It’s not my fault you decided to ditch without giving me a heads up.” He tries to look away as the side of her breast is in view when she turns and this…Damn it, why does she have to be so carefree and public with her nudity?

She smirks; “What’s the matter, dude? First time you seen a hot human naked you weren’t covering with scorpions?”

“Please, as if I care if your skins are covered or not.” He rubs the back of his neck; “You should be thanking me! I decided to venture out into this weather to rescue you, of my own accord, with no external persuasions needed!”

“Chidi told you to find me, didn’t he.”

“Yes, he did. But I could’ve said no and I didn’t. So…” He shrugs; “Progress?” Is it? He’s still new at this.

Eleanor suddenly starts to laugh and Michael can’t help but smile. He takes it that he’s right then. He notices that her face is still rather off-color, her lips now a shade of lilac, even though her shivering isn’t as violent as it was when he found her.

His chest aches, just for a second, as he remembers hesitating to come out. 

How he’d been excited at the idea of Eleanor suffering from this…Why wasn’t it enjoyable to see it happening before him?

“Uhm, Janet’s gonna be AWOL for a couple hours…But I could get something to warm you up? Humans like drinking warm liquified chocolate when it’s cold, right? Or I could fill one of those bags with dangerously scalding liquid?” 

“How about you just bring that internal fire of yours over here, bud?” She curls a finger at him, her other still wrapped around her shoulder; “You can be my hot water bottle while we wait this out.”

He isn’t sure what she means about that until he goes to sit next to her and, suddenly, Eleanor is grabbing his arms and folding them around herself as if he were now the wrap to make up her human-flavoured burrito. Her hands grip his, tight, bringing them around to rest around her stomach.

Michael shifts, awkwardly. He’s still getting used to the whole ‘hugging’ thing, which was mostly something Eleanor did as her own torture to annoy him, also Jason sometimes not having much of a concept of a personal space. It’s a whole other set of issues he thinks to put his arms around her when she’s completely naked. She has no qualms about leaning back into him.

“Awww, yeah, that’s nice. Demons make for good bean-bag chairs.” She smirks as she snuggles into him.

He isn’t sure whether to be flattered or insulted.

“Am I…helping then?” He asks, oddly nervous.

“Mmm hmm.” She hums, her heartrate steadying a little, as well as the pink returning to her lips.

The glow that fills Michael’s chest as he watches her smile in his arms, that sated buzz rushing through his stomach, is what he had expected to feel from seeing her be successfully tortured. Instead it had brought him some weird after-sad sensation that was new and frightening. And yet, helping her, making her better…That was the result that made him feel better?

Holy shirt….What was happening to him?

“You okay there, buddy?” Eleanor asks after a while, “You’ve got the look I used to have when someone told me they were bringing their toddlers out to lunch with me.”

He shakes his head; “S’fine….A-are you okay?” His hands shift around her middle, wanting to make sure she’s getting as much warmth as she can from him.

For some reason it matters _a lot_ that she is. The softness of her skin beneath his fingertips is distracting him from working out what he’s heard in his ethics lessons so far that might explain this. 

“Well, sat nude in an igloo, cuddling up to the demon who tortured me for three hundred years, isn’t quite the weirdest thing that’s happened to me in this place…but it’s also far from the worst.” She quips.

He feels as if he could melt now, that look she’s giving him making his essence fizz like a well-shaken soda bottle.

“Thanks for coming to get me…Eventually.” She says, moving a cold hand up to touch his cheek; “Damn, that touch would be good payback if you were human.”

“Sorry.” He smirks back; “I can’t help being a hot Architect, Eleanor.”

“And they call me full of myself!” She grins; “Whatever, we’re right and we should say it.”

That’s not what he meant but…Sure, he’ll take that. 

“Actually…your face could do with helping mine warm up.” Eleanor’s thumb brushes against the corner of his mouth.

Michael frowns; “…Really? How?”

She smiles, a twinkle in her eyes; “Like this.”

She moves in close, before he can even comprehend her next action, pressing her lips against his and sucking, lightly, her tongue invading his mouth while her hand gently head his head in place. Michael freezes, to start, stunned in shock and confusion. 

Do humans really do this just to…warm up? He wouldn’t be against the idea if that was the case, but…This is Eleanor Shellstrop in front of him, Arizona born and bred, almost ninety per cent of her actions were a pathway to sex.

Fork!

Michael pulled back, ignoring the softness of her lips, resisting the temptation to lose himself in…whatever that was.

“Ugh! Gross! Why do humans do that? Your food holes are for eating, you horny dinguses!” He makes a show of rubbing his lips on his hand.

Eleanor is laughing again; “Oh my god, you’d think I gave you cooties or something!”

“Is that a thing?! A human disease?! Do I need to disinfect myself?”

He starts to shuffle away but she reaches to grab his hand; “Relax, Mikey…It was just a bit of fun. Don’t worry, if you’re not into gross humans, I’ll be all good and pure and restrained…for one day.” 

He gulps, feeling as though he should be relieved; “G-good. W-why would I ever want to…Again…I mean. Good. Thank you.”

Now he has to stop his eyes from looking at her again, now that she’s warmed up and dried, no longer shaking like a leaf and looking smaller than usual. She’s sat in the glow of the fireplace, giving him that smile she had every time she saw through him, saw who he was, always too impressed or pleased with herself to be angry at him. 

Damn it, he should have left her to freeze.

_You know you couldn’t do that. Not anymore._

_She’s beaten you. Accept it._

“If you’re not gonna warm me up the fun way, the least you can do is snap us some hot chocolate.” Eleanor says, turning back to the fire and putting her palms up.

Michael sighs. Yes. That he can do, easy.

“And some dry comfy clothes….I wouldn’t wanna prolong your torture any longer.” She winks at him; “It’s only fair.”


End file.
